Proviso East Lives Up To Expectations

March 17, 1991|By Paul Sullivan, Chicago Tribune.

CHAMPAIGN — With great expectations surrounding Proviso East all season long, it sometimes seemed as though it wasn`t quite enough for the Pirates to simply win all their games in the state tournament.

No, everyone expected them to exhibit the same flash-and-dash offense that gave them a 24-point winning margin, despite the fact that the competition only got better and better as the tournament wore on.

To the credit of the players and coach Bill Hitt, however, they were more than satisfied in piling up the W`s, and Saturday night in Assembly Hall, they chalked up the biggest one of their lives.

Proviso East sealed its No. 1 ranking with a 68-61 victory over Peoria Manual in before 11,154 in the Class AA title game.

Maybe they`re not the best Illinois team of all time, but they are surely the best of 1991.

It was the third state title in the school`s rich basketball history, following championships in 1969 and `74.

For Peoria Manual coach Dick Van Scyoc, who was coaching the first title game in his legendary 43-year career, it was a disappointing ending to a storybook season.

The Pirates (32-1) began to pull away in the third quarter when Donnie Boyce, who was held scoreless in the first half, broke through with 12 points. Proviso turned a five-point halftime deficit into a 46-37 lead entering the fourth.

Then Proviso was its old slamming self, taking it inside to hit five straight baskets in a three-minute span to cap the season in style.

Howard Nathan`s three-pointer with 1:32 left gave the Rams (31-3) brief hope for a miracle rally, pulling them to within five points at 60-55. But the Pirates held on to bring the first-place trophy back to Maywood.

Sherell Ford led the Pirates with 23 points, ending his career with a thundering dunk at the buzzer, while Manual`s Clint Ford paced the Rams with 23.

The two Fords-Proviso East`s Sherell and Peoria Manual`s Clint-were the driving forces for their teams in the first half, which Manual wound up leading 28-23.

Sherell led the Pirates with 10 first-half points, while Clint, who averaged only seven points a game up until the tournament finals, clicked for 17.

Sherell got the crowd into the game early with a two-handed backward jam at the 5:55 mark of the first quarter and hit four shots in a row after missing his first to give Proviso an early 11-7 lead.

But the other Ford, the 6-foot-3-inch, 230-pound one, stole the show the rest of the half, going inside with relative ease on the taller Pirates for his 17.

With less than a minute to play and the Rams leading 26-23, Proviso had the ball and seemed intent on taking the last shot and pulling to within a point. But Proviso point guard Thad Smith walked up to Michael Finley at the perimeter, took the ball out of Finley`s hand and promptly put up an ill-advised 15-footer that gave the ball back to Manual with 20 seconds left.

Nathan missed a three-point attempt, but Clint Ford stepped in for the rebound and sank a short jumper at the buzzer to put the Rams up by five at the half.

Though the Rams came in with a severe height disadvantage, averaging 6-foot across the court to Proviso`s starting lineup average of 6-4, they weren`t afraid to go to the hoop.

Sherell Ford blocked three shots in less than one minute`s time midway through the second quarter, but the Rams refused to change their game plan. It seemed a suicidal notion, since the team`s second-leading rebounder, 5-11 junior guard Kevin Deal, was forced to sit out because of an ankle sprain incurred during Friday`s quarterfinals.